The actor injured his hand after he was involved in a car crash last year, while bosses had considered scrapping the entire sequel, STV reports.

Bay revealed that the film, which grossed $200 million (Â£120 million) at the US box office this past weekend, was lucky to be made at all.

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He said: "I actually read it on CNN online and was like, 'This can't be true'. I called my line producer Ian Bryce and he said 'It's true', and I was like 'Oh, my God'. He said 'Let's shut down', and I said 'We can't shut down!'"

The filmmaker decided to shoot around the star's injury and even incorporated it into the follow-up's plotline.

He added: "I immediately had them find the best people in the world to make a special cast that had never been made, with the Kevlar fingers. It was very thin, so you could photograph it. The problem was, if he were to jam his fingers, he could have lost his fingers forever, so we had some experts of the world come up with this design."

LaBeouf recently revealed that he would never regain full use of his damaged hand.